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Been playing around with that mastery a lot. I think it is easily one of the best. Op? Nah you really need to devote 300+ skill points because the only ways to travel with them is magery (gate) and walking (feet). Plus 120 to necro and spirit.
2 and you have a slot left over.
they last till you logout or you get too far outa sight.
I tested this pretty extensively before the last patch. And my findings were:
- Tier 1 Mastery and 90+ Necro was all that was required to control them, no SS is required (bug or intended? I suspect an oversight). Would only take a few attempts generally even at GM Necro. (Tested this morning, still the same)
- They retained full stats when controlled. I recall, med/Anat being zero as I think is the case with all tames (correct me if I'm wrong pls, need to re-test).
- You can Control 2 and remain mounted. Really needed to get around.
- To Control a second Skel Dragon you needed to take the first off the Ilshenar server which meant a lot of walking. Otherwise they don't respawn.
- If you log out or DC, *poof* they are gone.
- The biggest downside was that they would just endlessly attack each other, you or others due to the AoE spells which I believe has now been fixed but Ive not tested fully yet.
I would go as far to say that if you get one with reasonable stats they are on par with, if not better than a GD due to their passive healing and immunity to poison (all levels i think, tested on Miasma and poison does not apply).
Given the flagging issues have been resolved which made the ability pretty much unusable I would say a few tweaks might be in order!
Maybe just up them to 4 control slots? and tweak the control requirements?
Holy smokes that sounds OP!! Thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge. Your testing is very much appreciated. Next chance I get, I'll play around with it and see how well it holds up to the roof encounter.
That would kill the mastery. Too many skill points for a disposable dragon.
Short walk North-West from Sacrifice shrine, head waaay to the back of the ratman cave. Theres a Drake and a Dragon, the Drake is maybe a little over half as poweful as the Dragon.
If it spawns as a paragon, the deals off!
I forgot to mention as someone else mentioned it, I did try to use the Skel Dragons that spawn by Chyloth(?) with the bell in Doom. My experience was that they just despawned after a short time regardless of what you were doing.
Maybe It was something I did, not sure, but never went back.
Maybe It was something I did, not sure, but never went back.
I would partially agree, but as it stands the most powerful undead that you can command, as far as I know, is the Skeleton Dragon and it is exactly the same requirement for ANY undead creature that is to say... 2 Control Slots and 90+ Necro and that includes even a lowly Zombie.
If you are going to control a more powerful creature there should be at least a little bit more requirements/difficulty as I think was intended.
I'm not saying nerf it into the ground but to be able to control the equivalent of a GD with 90 skill points and a tier 1 mastery is a little bit off.
There was one oversight with the latest patch. They still fight each other when they cast poison strike, which is an AOE attack. It isn't as bad as it once was and Mesanna has my report on it so I'm hoping it gets fixed. Skeletal dragons seem to be very weak to fire and get taken down pretty quickly by dragons and their type, so I wouldn't say they are as strong as a GD.
I just created a new necro with Vet, however, so we'll see how well I do when I'm able to vet them to keep them up and fighting. The success in actually charming them is dependent on your necro, spirit speak, and the barding difficulty of the creature you're trying to charm, so it does help to have spirit speak, but persistence will pay off to counteract not having it.
I did wonder, however, if we'd see sampires running around with two of these in tow.
I just created a new necro with Vet, however, so we'll see how well I do when I'm able to vet them to keep them up and fighting. The success in actually charming them is dependent on your necro, spirit speak, and the barding difficulty of the creature you're trying to charm, so it does help to have spirit speak, but persistence will pay off to counteract not having it.
I did wonder, however, if we'd see sampires running around with two of these in tow.
It's a sampire im testing on at the moment, controlled about 10+ in the past hour averaging i reckon no more than 5 attempts to control each time and thats with only GM Necro, zero SS and I'm an Elf so no JOAT factored in (dare I suggest the formula is weighted the wrong way?). AND I just experienced the Poison Strike while testing on Balrons, they switched on me and before I noticed I was inspecting the paving! =D
The problem I see with a Sampire, moreso if guilded, is attacking them accidentaly as I assume most poeple have an attack nearest type macro which is spammed.
Their resists overall are pretty average but they decimate pretty much anything in their path very quickly. Vetting/Healing would be a bonus for harder beasties although still a little risky using vet with the poison strike issue.
Sampy can't really do anything with them since they won't have a way to gate them around.
Can we please wait until there's some sign in the game that people are even using these before we nerf it into the ground?
Can we please wait until there's some sign in the game that people are even using these before we nerf it into the ground?
Exactly and remember. Once they are dead.. the necro is on his own.
The amount of life drain that controlled Undead receive, is based mainly upon your SS. With how Skeletal Dragons can hit almost as hard as a GD (so 2 SDs > 1 GD for damage output), they can leech back quite a bit of health if you have 120 SS Real.
While doing Travesty guild hunts on my Necro/Mage/Mystic, i've been using 2 Skeletal Dragons recently, and they do quite well, better than a RC in fact. I personally haven't seen them casting Poison Strike since the patch, but i did get one Travesty where my Skeletal Dragons started attacking guildies, and even i was accidentally flagged against my guildies somehow, so my Conduit+Poison Strikes were not only hitting Travesty and her Images, but also my guildies for some odd reason.
By the way, Conduit+Poison Strike is an awesome way to kill Travesty's Mirror Images, while also dealing damage to her at the same time. All of the Mirror Images will get hit with the main Poison Strike (as will Travesty herself), but the splash damage will also hit the real Travesty multiple times. So if she has 4 Mirror Images up, Travesty will get hit with 1 main Poison Strike, then hit with 4 instances of it's splash damage. It's like a Poison Cluster Bomb going off. Conduit also works with Corpse Skin and Strangle.
While doing Travesty guild hunts on my Necro/Mage/Mystic, i've been using 2 Skeletal Dragons recently, and they do quite well, better than a RC in fact. I personally haven't seen them casting Poison Strike since the patch, but i did get one Travesty where my Skeletal Dragons started attacking guildies, and even i was accidentally flagged against my guildies somehow, so my Conduit+Poison Strikes were not only hitting Travesty and her Images, but also my guildies for some odd reason.
By the way, Conduit+Poison Strike is an awesome way to kill Travesty's Mirror Images, while also dealing damage to her at the same time. All of the Mirror Images will get hit with the main Poison Strike (as will Travesty herself), but the splash damage will also hit the real Travesty multiple times. So if she has 4 Mirror Images up, Travesty will get hit with 1 main Poison Strike, then hit with 4 instances of it's splash damage. It's like a Poison Cluster Bomb going off. Conduit also works with Corpse Skin and Strangle.
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I personally don't see the need for a nerf. It's a bit of a pain charming the undead, it's a bit of a pain leading them around, and you lose them, you need to go get more. It makes my necros relevant again and also consider this: any character who has Stygian Abyss can get and bond two lowland bouras which are no slouches for being able to use with a straight newbie character.